Infectious Grit

Rating: 7/10 (25 March 2020)

Credited with reviving the zombie genre, although it reuses the viral outbreak idea from the "Resident Evil" franchise, and some question whether it's a zombie movie at all--I guess because the infected are alive and fast or something, "28 Days Later" is more remarkable for its gritty style, as aided by the then-new technology of digital cameras, infecting the genre with a low-resolution, guerrilla filmmaking look akin to the exploitation cinema from which zombies were first reanimated on screen in George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" (1968).
Consequently, the opening lab scene looks especially grotesque, including a rage-filled primate forced to watch similarly low-res, violent screen images, Ã la "A Clockwork Orange" (1971). The protagonist waking up from a coma to discover a post-apocalyptic landscape would later be ripped-off by "The Walking Dead" franchise, although the shots of him wandering through a deserted London remain unmatched. It's also a stark contrast to the frenetic finale--alternate epilogues aside.